More African elephants are being killed for ivory than are being born, despite poaching levels falling for the fourth year in a row in 2015. The new data, released on UN world wildlife day on Thursday, shows about 60% of elephant deaths are at the hands of poachers, meaning the overall population is most likely […]
Tag: poachers
Record number of African rhinos killed in 2015
A record number of rhinos were killed by poachers across Africa last year, driven by demand in the far east for their horn. The number slaughtered in their heartland in South Africa, which has four-fifths of the continent’s rhino, dipped for the first time since the crisis exploded nearly a decade ago. But increases in […]
The all-female patrol stopping South Africa’s rhino poachers
The Black Mambas are winning the war on poaching,” insists Siphiwe Sithole. “We have absolutely zero tolerance for rhino poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. The poachers will fall – but it will not be with guns and bullets.” Sithole and Felicia Mogakane are members of South Africa’s Black Mambas, the world’s first all-female anti-poaching […]
Mali’s desert elephants face extinction within three years
Mali’s elephants, one of just two remaining desert herds in the world, will be gone in three years unless the government does more to protect them, a conservation group has warned. Poachers have taken advantage of the chaos from a growing Islamist insurgency and other unrest in the lawless north to step up ivory trafficking […]
POLL: Should the wolf cull in Finland be stopped?
Finnish hunters have been authorised to kill nearly 20% of the country’s wolf population in a controversial trial cull that begins this weekend, aimed at managing stocks. Authorities hope the sanctioned hunt of nearly 50 of the country’s estimated 250 grey wolves will curb illegal poaching, which some rural landowners have resorted to in recent […]
POLL: Should the ivory trade in South Africa be legalized?
This week, representatives from countries around the world are gathered in Geneva to discuss the wildlife trade. The agenda ranges from rhinos to totoabas, but one of the hottest topics is ivory: Some 30,000 elephants are slaughtered for their tusks each year. One thing that came up at the 66th meeting of the Standing Committee […]
Will 2016 Be a Breakthrough in the Fight to Save Elephants?
Just outside Arusha High Court in northern Tanzania one morning in November, the five men waited for the magistrate to call their names. All had been charged with killing elephants. This was the fourth preliminary hearing for a suspected head poacher and his accomplices since their arraignment more than a year ago. The younger ones […]
How Black-Market Poison Is Helping Poachers Kill Animals
According to Zimbabwe authorities, poachers have killed a total of 80 elephants by poisoning them with cyanide, a highly toxic industrial chemical, during various incidents in recent months. First, 11 elephants were killed in Hwange National Park and 3 in Matusadona National Park. On October 26, the parks authority announced that another 22 had been […]